Electrochemical reactions between an electrolyte (an ionic conductor) and an electrode are of widespread interest. Electrochemical reactions occur when an externally provided current passes between the electrode and the electrolyte. Electrolytes are commonly found, for example, in batteries and are of great interest for new forms of energy storage.
Recent research has also demonstrated that electrochemical reactions are useful in water desalination. For example, in Electrochemically Mediated Seawater Desalination (Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 8107-8110) the authors describe a branched micro-channel where a bipolar electrode is present. When the bipolar electrode is connected to a power source providing a voltage and seawater passes through the micro-channel, brine is separated from desalted water. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20140183046 describes similar structures. The article Direct Desalination of Seawater with Nanofluidic PDMS Chips Mediated Seawater Desalination (published at https://nice.asu.edu/nano/direct-desalination-seawater-nanofluidic-pdms-chips), discloses a similar branched micro-fluidic structure. A related article in the Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8548 85483R-6 entitled A portable and high energy efficient desalination/purification system by ion concentration polarization describes a higher-throughput water desalination approach that utilizes ion concentration polarization. Ultra-long carbon nanotubes have also exhibited ultrahigh specific adsorption capacity for salt, as described in the article Carbon nanotube membranes with ultrahigh specific adsorption capacity for water desalination and purification published in Nature Communications 4, Article number: 2220 doi:10.1038/ncomms3220.
There remains an on-going need for inexpensive, efficient, low-energy, high-throughput methods and devices for enabling electrochemical reactions between an electrolyte and an electrode.